April 27: The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
♫ Music:
Saturday, April 27
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
Scriptures: Ephesians 5:27, 32, Revelation 19:7-9, Revelation 22:17
So that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God. ”The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Poetry:
The New Jerusalem
by Franz Wright
In the instant before I sleep, I saw it
again: Earth
all water, all
ocean! Bathed
in this translucent blue ray, so gorgeous, like
Mary’s--
And I knew again, for the millionth time, knew--
lying all alone there in the dark--you
can shut both your eyes
(you can pluck out your eyes), the light
will still be there
Rilke in one of his letters said Christ
is a pointing,
a finger pointing
at something, and we are like dogs
who keep barking and lunging
at the hand
Grave black grieving face in golden
space
above the sea
which is no more
That is,
which is not yet
THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB
Birth, death, and resurrection. These are the themes we have meditated upon throughout this Lenten devotional series. They also are the main events that mark the seasons of the earth and of civilization. In some ways, it seems that all of history is simply an endless cycle of birth, death, and birth again, with no real end in sight. The same can feel true in our personal lives. As we walk with Christ year after year, we become wiser, more loving, and more faith-filled. Yet, the more we grow, the more we realize how much healing and transformation we still need. In those moments, it can feel as though we have never truly known God, never had any real faith in Him, after all. Meanwhile, our physical bodies cycle continuously between health, sickness, and—hopefully—health again, until eventually, they cease to function altogether.
Will it ever end? What are we progressing toward, and will we ever get there? Does our progress even matter? Our choices to surrender, to die to ourselves, to hold fast to God’s goodness—do they have any lasting effect if we keep struggling, keep suffering, keep coming face to face with our lack?
In Revelation 19:7-9, John hears a great multitude from heaven praising God with a sound “like loud peals of thunder.” “Let us rejoice and exult and give [God] the glory,” the multitude roars, “For the marriage of the Lamb has come.” This event, clearly long-awaited, is the celebration of the ages: Christ and the Church are finally becoming one. At this celebration, we, the Bride, are “granted” to clothe ourselves in “fine linen, bright and pure . . . the righteous deeds of the saints.” This image stands in stark contrast to a much earlier one: Adam and Eve, freshly exiled from the Garden, wearing the skins of slain animals to cover their shame. At the wedding feast of the Lamb, the Church will have no spot or blemish to hide. Our linen garments will serve only to enhance the radiant perfection Christ has brought forth in us. He has taken on the responsibility of making us worthy to become one with Him—but the garments, the heavenly multitude tell us, are granted to us to make.
The process of making linen from flax is laborious and time-consuming. Even with modern-day technology, some parts of the fiber harvesting can only be done by hand. Moreover, weaving flax fiber into cloth is also difficult, as flax is brittle and breaks easily. The entire process from plant to cloth requires patience, practice, and repetition. No doubt it also feels endless, even futile sometimes, to those in the thick of it. The finer the cloth, the more painstaking the process. Yet, when it is finished, linen is strong, durable, and lovely.
Those with a positive outlook on life see it as a mostly-wonderful existence, with occasional moments of hardship and suffering. Others view life as mostly drudgery and painful, occasionally relieved by moments of grace. But there is another way to understand this life that is perhaps more biblical than either of the two. Instead of yearning for an earthly state of being in which all our desires are finally met and prayers answered, we can see this life as the slow, repetitive process of making fine linen to wear on that day. We can treat our choices and experiences, grim or glorious, and cyclical though they may be, as the loom on which we weave it.
We can remember that we do not do this task alone. We are filled with the Holy Spirit, who continually leads us to the truth that Christ has already given us His whole self. We are surrounded by a thick cloud of fellow-weavers, past and present, reminding us of our destiny: one day, we will be equal to Christ in love and holiness, worthy of being one with Him forever. We will sit down at His table with the heavenly host, with friends, family, and saints of old. We will bear an eternal weight of glory.
Prayer:
Jesus, I give you my faith today. Thank you that since the day you went to prepare a place for me, no part of my life has been in vain. I believe that each choice I make to surrender more fully to You, each righteous deed, has eternal significance. One day, I will stand before you clothed in the love and faith I offer you today. Help me to press into this truth, fixing my eyes on that wondrous mystery that is my destiny, the marriage feast of the Lamb.
Amen.
Christina Gonzalez Ho
Co-author of Los Angeles: Mestizo Archipelago
Co-founder of Estuaries
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
The New Song, 2002
Maria Gabankova
Acrylic on canvas
152 x 127 cm
Artist Maria Gabankova says of this celebratory work: “This painting, entitled The New Song, is a fusion of a real-life celebration of friends and family gathered over a meal and a vision of an anticipated heavenly banquet prepared for those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. Other spiritual realities include the Tree of Life for the Healing of Nations, musical instruments represent the new song of praise to God and the food delights symbolize all the marvelous things that God has prepared for the redeemed. Each face is intentionally unique, each person an individual who gains their full potential in communion with other believers through the power of God’s mercy and Christ’s redeeming love and salvation.”
About the Artist:
Artist Maria Gabankova was born in the former Czechoslovakia and grew up in the family of the artists Antonia Laník-Gabanek and Jozef Gabanek. Following the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Maria's family left for Austria and later immigrated to Canada, where she now lives. The central theme of Gabankova’s work is realist figurative representation with conceptual emphasis on the spiritual and Biblical. Portraiture holds a special focus in her practice and she has an impressive record of commissioned portraits, including ones of many distinguished Canadians and Americans In 2007, British Publisher Piquant Editions published Body Broken/Body Redeemed, a selection of Maria’s works, with 68 pages of reproductions in full color. Gabankova has received several awards and her work has been shown extensively in Canada and the United States and is represented in private and public art collections in North America and Europe. From 1991 until 2015, Maria Gabankova was an associate professor of art at the Ontario College of Art & Design University in Toronto. She now lives with her husband Ales Brezina in Toronto, Canada.
About the Music:
Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109: I. Vivace ma non troppo” from the album Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas
About the Composer:
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was one of the greatest composers the world has ever known. He was an innovator, widening the scope of the sonata, symphony, concerto and quartet, and combining vocals and instruments in interesting new ways. His personal life was marked by struggle and loneliness. Some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life, when he was deaf. "Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109," composed in 1820, is the antepenultimate of his piano sonatas. In it, after the huge "Hammerklavier Sonata, Op. 106,"Beethoven returns to a smaller scale and a more intimate character, perfect music for a dinner party. Musically, the work is characterized by a free and original approach to the traditional sonata form and its home key, E major, is frequently used by Beethoven to canote radiant light.
About the Performer:
Mari Kodama (b 1967) is a classical pianist who has performed at festivals and other venues in Europe, North America and Japan. Kodoma was raised in Germany, Switzerland, England and France. By the age of 10, she decided to be a concert pianist and stayed in France to study piano at the Conservatoire de Paris. She made her Japanese debut in 1984 at age 17 and was an immediate success. Kodama has performed throughout Europe, the United States, and Japan and has appeared at venues such as Mostly Mozart, Bard Music Festival, the Hollywood Bowl, California’s Midsummer Mozart Festival, and several European festivals. In 2002, she gave her final performance of the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle, which she presented over three consecutive seasons in Los Angeles and Pasadena, California. She is married to American classical conductor Kent Nagano.
About the Poet:
Franz Wright (1953–2015) was an American poet. He and his father James Wright are the only parent/child pair to have won the Pulitzer Prize in the same category. He earned his BA from Oberlin College in 1977. In his precisely crafted, lyrical poems, Wright addresses the themes of isolation, illness, spirituality, and gratitude. Critic Helen Vendler wrote in the New York Review of Books, “Wright's scale of experience….runs from the homicidal to the ecstatic....His best forms of originality: deftness in patterning, startling metaphors, starkness of speech, compression of both pain and joy, and a stoic self-possession with the agonies and penalties of existence.” Wright received a Whiting Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He taught at Emerson College and other universities, worked in mental health clinics, and volunteered his time at a center for grieving children.
About the Devotional Writer:
Christina Gonzalez Ho
Writer, Co-founder of Estuaries
Christina Gonzalez Ho holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. In 2018, Christina co-authored Los Angeles: Mestizo Archipelago (Pinatubo Press), the culmination of a yearlong research project on the complex and disparate nature of the L.A. art world and its relationship to faith and spirituality.